I should preface this by saying I’m a huge John Cusack fan. Being a child of the 80s, I practically grew up with John. [See? We're even on a first name basis.] And he didn’t disappoint me in this movie.

Martian Child is about a recently widowed Fantasy writer, David [John Cusack], who adopts a boy, Dennis [played by Bobby Coleman], that believes he is from Mars. Dennis has been placed with several families who he has seen come and go and now has some trust issues. His coping mechanism is to pretend he is a Martian. David was a loner as a child, which helped him become a great writer in adulthood, and can see a bit of himself in Dennis.

John Cusack’s performance was awesome as usual. I could really feel his sadness over the loss of his wife, mixed with his desire to help this child he could totally relate to along with his frustration of trying to bond with an apprehensive Dennis.

And Bobby Coleman did a great job portraying a boy who just wanted to be loved, but wasn’t sure he could trust anybody. If you ever felt even a little bit of loneliness as a child [and who didn't] then you can definitely feel Dennis’ pain.

The movie didn’t get great reviews, but I really enjoyed it. [Although it was kind of a sappy, pull-at-the-heart-strings kind of movie so I doubt my husband --who prefers action flicks-- would have liked it.] I thought the acting was very good. Not only were Cusack and Coleman great, but Amanda Peete [as David's long time friend] and Joan Cusack [as David's sister] were fabulous as well. Although there weren’t a lot of surprises, I felt like the plot moved along nicely, keeping us entertained all the way to the end. Even though I didn’t cry, the movie was a very emotional ride…which is exactly how I like my dramas. I’m giving it a four out of five beans.

Today, on a candy run at CVS, Caleb convinced me to buy him some Blendy Pens. The kids have seen these on TV and have been begging me for them for weeks, so I finally gave in.

We got a pack of 12 pens, 6 fusion chambers, 8 surprise textured art pictures and 25+ surprise art stickers for $9.99.

As soon as we got home the kids tore in to the box. Skyler read the directions and they began to blend.

I checked on them a while later to see how it was going. I found Caleb using one pen to color on the tip of another pen. I said, “What are you doing?” Apparently they couldn’t get the pens to blend in the provided blending chambers so he was taking matters in to his own hands.

I read the directions and discovered the kids weren’t holding the pens in the vertical position. Once we started doing that we finally got some blending.

You are supposed to put a pen in to each of the ends of the chamber until you hear each of them click. Then you hold the pens vertically while twisting the top pen one way and the bottom pen the other way for at least 5 seconds. The bottom pen will then be blended and you can color with it. The longer you twist the more blended color you’ll have.

The box says Blendy Pens are for ages 6+, but even Skyler & Spencer [who will be 8 in less than a month] were having some trouble. Honestly, even I had a bit of trouble. It’s hard to twist the pens. My hands hurt after a few minutes.

Included in the box were some textured pictures to color. Now that was pretty cool. The kids didn’t use much blended color on them, but they did like the look of the textures with the solid colors.

When I was a kid we did this on our own by pushing the tips of two markers together and twisting. So I’m not sure Blendy Pens are worth $10 when you can buy a package of markers for 99 cents. But, then again, we usually do pay more for convenience and using the fusion chambers does give you that blended effect without ruining the tip of the marker. Plus we got the textured pictures and stickers.

Lost and Found is Carolyn Parkhurst’s second book and it sure makes me want to go read the first. She’s a fantastic writer. The story was intriguing and the characters were so captivating I read the whole book in one day. The characters are in the midst of filming a reality show, but even if you aren’t a reality TV fanatic you’ll enjoy this book.

Read the full review on The Bean Blog.

The 24-Hour Pharmacist is written by Suzy Cohen, a pharmacist and author of the syndicated column “Dear Pharmacist.” She breaks the book up in to sections based on sections of the body; Above the Waist, Above the Neck, Below the Waist, And Everything in Between. In each chapter she gives expert advice on everything from colds to toe fungus to heart disease and depression. But she doesn’t just spout out long lists of symptoms and tell you what drugs to take. She explains why we suffer from these diseases, describes the current drugs on the market and then gives some natural alternatives.

Read the full review on The Bean Blog.

The fine folks over at Sourcebooks sent me a free copy of The Naked Roommate to read and review.

The author, Harlan Cohen, gives advice on the hard issues, like dating, sex, alcohol and drugs, plus tips on going Greek, getting involved, skipping class and dealing with roommates and the stuff we tend to overlook, like avoiding the ‘freshman 15′ and doing laundry without losing your unmentionables. And yes, there is a tip on how to deal with a naked roommate (tip #16).

Read the full review on The Bean Blog.

And now there is a new book in the series; Battling Bigfoot. In this book Val is disappointed to find out the makers of his favorite drink, Sweet Beat Sparkling Beat Juice have come up with a new formula. It’s no longer made from real beats but instead from unnatural ingredients including a dye that make Val break out in hives. But that’s not the worst of it. It turns our Damon Christopher’s company, Pendant Enterprises, has purchased the mountain where the beats are grown and are going to build and extreme sports park there. When the Extreme Monsters team gets to the mountain for the latest competition they discover the mountain is dry and dusty…with very few beats. As they start the race they realize something is off. Somebody is sabotaging the race. Who could it be? And why?

Read the full review on The Bean Blog.